Berlin-based duo SchnAAk certainly have impressive avante-garde rock credentials under their belts, with Mathias Jahning (vocals / guitars / keys / fx) having previously been the mastermind behind German jazzcore band The Season Standard, while Johannes Dopping (drums / percussion / xylophone / toys / vocals) also plays in US-based band Kayo Dot. On the heels of two well-received Eps, tis debut album ‘Wake Up Colossus’ sees SchnAAk crafting a crunchy mix of hard-edged math-rock and strangely Afrobeat-fuelled arrangements that practically throws the entire kitchen sink into the mix, in terms of sonic textures. Perhaps the best comparison to SchnAAk’s overall approach would be Deerhoof or Lightning Bolt’s unpredictable stop-start complex rhythmic dynamic, sprinkled with more subtle electronic layers and then given the occasional sludge-metal kick.
Opening track ‘Birds And Grains’ rapidly shifts from a vaguely Pavement-esque janging guitar intro into head-snapping math-rock snare fills and eerie ambient guitar strokes, before suddenly lurching forward into sludgy Melvins-esque riffs and crashing metal-drums, the subtly placed near-falsetto vocals seeming at odds with the flameout going on beneath, while ‘This Is Life Bubbly Hog’ rears up out of crashing downtuned guitar crunches into a brief middle section of synths and teasing vocals before propelling itself to a furious Mars Volta-gone-Afrobeat esque climax that sees polyrhythmic percussion fills battling for space with crashing cymbals and fractured guitar soloing.
Elsewhere, ‘Herero’ slows the pace down for a ramshackle wander through eccentric toy piano keys and shaker percussion that suddenly shoots forward into martial bursts of drumming and squalling treated guitars, the emergence of xylophone adding a playful edge to the tight math-rock structures, before ‘It Could Be Nicer Being Red’ pares the crunching guitars away in favour of an eerie downbeat creep through treated robo-vocals, humming electronic ambience and sparse, mechanistic drum beats that’s easily one of this album’s most intriguing moments. An impressive debut that succeeds in merging the delightfully bizarre with technical proficiency.
Chris Downton
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